Dive Brief:
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Book ban attempts continued to soar in 2023, with a 65% increase in the number of titles disputed compared to the year prior, according to an American Library Association report released last month. The efforts to censor 4,240 unique titles in schools and libraries marks the highest level ever documented by the organization.
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Groups pushing for book bans focused their attention on public libraries, where the number of titles targeted rose by 92%, in addition to school libraries, which saw an 11% increase.
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Seventeen states saw attempts to ban more than 100 titles: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Dive Insight:
The spike in censorship requests was driven by groups and individuals pushing for dozens or hundreds of bans at a time, according to the report. The use of this tactic has grown more popular in curriculum content disputes in recent years.
"The reports from librarians and educators in the field make it clear that the organized campaigns to ban books aren’t over," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, in a statement.
To curb this trend, Florida lawmakers in January proposed charging a $100-per-item fee to parents and residents who challenge six or more books or curricular materials a year. The bill was among the first of its kind seeking to curb challenges to instructional material, and passed the state legislature in March.
Florida, one of the states leading curriculum restrictions and parental rights laws and proposals, saw 1,218 objections resulting in the removal of 386 books, according to a Jan. 18 analysis by the state House.
The increase in book bans in 2023 confirms steady increases recorded in other reports.
In spring 2023, there were 1,477 instances of individual book bans in just the first half of the year, up from 1,149 books banned in spring 2022, according to a count by PEN America, a free speech advocacy nonprofit.
In the 2022-23 school year overall, there were a total of 3,362 books banned, a 33% increase since the prior school year, according to PEN America.
Both PEN America and ALA found that censorship attempts were predominantly aimed at the voices of LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color. According to ALA, titles representing these voices made up almost 50% of censorship attempts.
As school boards navigate book ban demands, lawsuits on the issue have also emerged.
Last year, two lawsuits were filed just weeks apart challenging Florida school districts' decisions to ban books. One of those lawsuits was joined by Penguin Random House, a major publishing company that also joined a lawsuit last year against curriculum restrictions in Iowa. Such lawsuits are often filed under the First and 14th Amendments.
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